World News This Week in Prayer – Thursday, Oct. 20, 2016

Once again, Lord, the voice of the prophets remains strikingly relevant through the centuries. Joel 2:24-25a reminds us that:

The threshing floors shall be full of grain,the vats shall overflow with wine and oil.I will repay you for the yearsthat the swarming locust has eaten.

As we pray for people who are victims of atrocities in Mosul, Iraq, Aleppo, Syria; and in Yemen, these words reveal the potential of these lands.

Lord, in your mercy,Hear our prayer.

We pray for the people of Thailand, mourning their King and awaiting a new leader; for the people of Srebrenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina, having elected a new Bosnian Serb mayor; and for the people of the US, awaiting their chance to elect a new president.

Lord, in your mercy,Hear our prayer.

We pray for rescue and relief for those caught in floods in central Vietnam, the Iberian Peninsula, and Tenerife, Spain following prolonged droughts; for those being hit by typhoons in the Philippines; for those dealing with the aftermath of hurricane Matthew in Haiti, the US, and Canada; for those affected by damaging winds on the west coast of the US and Canada; and for those in areas of the US and South Africa where record high temperatures are causing record-breaking droughts.

Lord, in your mercy,Hear our prayer.

We give thanks for our imagination:

For the rescue and repair of a Kiwi egg, using just masking tape, to help save and support this endangered species in New Zealand; for the jungle school for rescued orangutans in Indonesia; and for gleaning feedback initiatives – collecting food rejected or wasted by supermarkets and farms and redistributing it to people in need – which are occurring throughout the UK, the US, and Spain.

These remind us that however much WE have caused the problems of warring nations and environmental destruction, YOU, O Lord, have given us the imagination and creative skill to start repairing the damage, allowing the environment to heal and our human generosity to overcome our greed.

Gratitudes

December 28, 2013

In October, Pope Francis formally gave permission for Roman Catholic masses in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas to be celebrated in Tzotzil and Tzeltal, the two native languages that are the only languages spoken by 65% of the population […]